Pro-Palestinian activist arrested for placing ‘Free Palestine’ sticker on Sderot monument for fallen soldier

Andrey Khrzhanovskiy films himself placing a "Free Palestine" sticker on a monument for a fallen soldier in Sderot on December 3, 2024. (Screen capture/X)
Andrey Khrzhanovskiy films himself placing a "Free Palestine" sticker on a monument for a fallen soldier in Sderot on December 3, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

Police arrested a pro-Palestinian activist in Tel Aviv yesterday after he filmed himself earlier this month placing a sticker that had a Palestinian flag on it along with the caption “Free Palestine” on a monument for a fallen soldier in Sderot.

Right-wing activists discovered Andrei Krazanovsky’s video on social media and reached out to various lawmakers, including Housing Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf who personally contacted the police commissioner, Haaretz reports.

Krazanovsky made aliyah from Russia several years ago.

After his arrest, police asked the Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court to extend his detention by five days but a judge rejected the request and ordered that Krazanovsky be released, given that the sticker still fell within the realms of free speech.

Police arrested Krazanovsky, 26, on suspicion of vandalizing property and conduct that could violate public peace.

In issuing her ruling, Judge Sabine Cohen criticized police for having made the arrest in the first place noting that the sticker wasn’t even found at the monument when the police arrived at the scene. “There is no indication in the investigation material that the application of the sticker posed a risk to public safety,” she wrote in her decision.

The judges noted that the sticker is an offense to the feelings of all families of fallen soldiers but still doesn’t constitute grounds for arrest. However, she ordered that Krazanovsky be banned from memorial sites for 30 days.

Following her ruling, police submitted a request to delay Krazanovsky’s release.

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